War of the words at summer box office

A row over sluggish ticket sales in the US opened up this week as the man who represents US cinema owners accused the Hollywood studios of making films that simply aren't good enough.

John Fithian, who heads the National Association of Theatre Owners, went on the attack after Disney's incoming chief executive officer Robert Iger told reporters that the antidote to the box office slump was to move towards simultaneous release in theatres and on DVD.

"Here's what we know about 2005: the movies are not as good," Fithian said in a statement released to the press. "They're not terrible; they're just not as good. And so the industry has experienced a temporary drop-off compared with 2004, the biggest box office year in movie history."

He continued: "[Iger] should know that Hollywood studios would be merely one shrivelled vendor among many in that new world of movies-as-commodities-only."

He said cinema owners were tired of taking the blame for the decline this year in ticket sales, adding that a move away from the traditional releasing model, whereby a film opens in cinemas roughly four months before it comes out on DVD, would leave Hollywood with "no viable [cinema] industry".

Fithian's rebuke followed comments by Iger to reporters earlier in the week. "Windows [between cinema and DVD release] need to change," said the man who will replace Michael Eisner. "They need to compress. I don't think it's out of the question that a DVD can be released in effect in the same window as a [cinematic] release.

"Although I'm sure we will get a fair amount of push-back on this from the industry, it's not out of the question. I think that all the old rules should be called into question because the rules in terms of consumption have changed dramatically."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, some cinema chains have already refused to take part in a simultaneous release plan put forward by 2929 Entertainment, the company owned by billionaires Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban.

The partners announced last spring that they would put six specially commissioned high definition projects by Steven Soderbergh in simultaneous release in cinemas, on DVD and on cable TV.

Certain cinema operators are already refusing to book the films. Not that it will bother Wagner and Cuban that much - they own the acclaimed Landmark arthouse cinema chain, not to mention their own HDNet television network.